Kurashi - News From Japan

Saturday, we had the first snow of the year at Mt Tateyama in Toyama prefecture, northwest of Tokyo. The Japanese Alps are a long mountain range with many peaks over 3,000 meters of still active volcanos. The photo from The Mainichi reminded me of author Yasunari Kawabata’s masterpiece Snow Country where he describes visits to these parts of the country by train, through long tunnels linking the west coast to Tokyo. I thought it was a good topic for Treehugger . “The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country,” is the famous first line of the novel.

Fun video and simple dance for the kids. Mottainai Grandma is a picture book by Mariko Shinju, published by Kodansha, that has sold half a million copies. She is now on tour in Japan talking about the problems we all face, not just environmental issues, but also child labour and worse. "What do you mean by Mottainai?" One day I was asked by my child. How can I explain this word? There are some Japanese words that cannot be translated into English and Mottainai is the one and is difficult to explain even in Japanese. This is how I started to think about making this picture story book. - Mariko Shinju

(Do watch the ibises fly at around 1:30 into the video clip!) Big news from Sado Island in Niigata prefecture! Crested Ibises have been returned to the wild after 27 years. NHK World explains: The 10 crested ibises (5 male and 5 female) were bred at the conservation center on the island from birds sent from central China. Japanese crested ibises used to be seen across Japan: They became extinct as agricultural chemicals destroyed their food sources. They disappeared from the wild in 1981, when the last 5 were captured for breeding on Sado Island. Residents of Sado have been working to make a friendly environment for the ibises, such as by creating ponds where the birds can catch fish and insects. I wish NHK would take this opportunity and explain in more detail why agricultural chemicals destroyed the habitat of these magnificient ibises. 20-30 years of turning rice fields into a toxic soup? Remember Rachel Carson ? I wish these 10 very dignified birds all the best in Japan (they are...

Consumers Union of Japan , Shodanren, and Shufuren are three of Japan's most experienced consumer organizations, together with new groups like Japan Offspring Fund. All are now up in arms, holding rallies downtown, at the revelation of the new food safety scandal, involving imports of so-called Minimum Access Rice, that proved to be contaminated with aflatoxin mold and illegal pesticides. Thousands of people may have eaten this rice (sold to hospitals and nursing homes!). It was never intended for human consumption, but imported to be used for glue and other industrial products. Japan agreed to the imports as part of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in the 1980s and early 1990s. Japan imports a certain amount of rice annually under a "Minimum Access" World Trade Organization accord. The World Trade Organization has indeed made consumer protection very, very difficult. I am amazed by the scale of this scandal. It appears to me that the global food crisis earlier thi...

In the Pines, a blog I really like, quotes an ancient sutra talking about how mountains walk. But, for people, that is hard to comprehend. The sutra notes that if you tell a fish that the river flows, it will also not understand. Such are the sutras: Nevertheless, when dragons and fish see water as a palace, just as when humans see palaces, they do not view it as flowing. And, if some onlooker were to explain to them that their palace was flowing water, they would surely be just as amazed as we are now to hear it said that mountains flow. From Dogen's san-sui-kyou (山水経)--Mountains and Waters Sutra . In the Pines visited Eiheiji , a special place in Fukui prefecture, with a number of temples up in those walking mountains. Thanks to the miracles of Youtube, you can also stroll around and get a brief lecture about how the temple compound is like the body (and soul) of a human being. Deep stuff (except for the silly music in the background). Enjoy.

Being busy with my book (more about that at later point, I promise) I had the rare opportunity to meet Master Sushi Chef Shigeo Mori, Chairman of the All Japan Sushi Association , last night at his restaurant in Taito ward, downtown Tokyo. Mori-sensei has a lot to say about sushi. His family business is now in its fifth generation, having started in the early Meiji period, and he is concerned how sushi culture will be able to continue to develop. With its roots in the Edo era, sushi didn't really take off until the late 1950s, when transportation and refrigeration made it possible to bring fresh fish all over Japan. Now, overfishing and pollution are issues that seem much more difficult to solve. "A great deal is lost in a world of instant results," says Shigeo Mori.

I was surprised to see this post over at Treehugger. In Scandinavia, they already have plug-in stations where people can recharge the electric cars (such as the Toyoya in the photo). Norway is also definitely still in the lead, with more stations (it forecasts over 100 in place by the end of this year), and a significant advantage for early electric car adopters - free charging and free parking! In addition, Norway's THINK and Buddy give the country a real incentive to do what it takes to deliver an electric car infrastructure. Treehugger: Swedes Battle Norwegians to Become Best Electric Car Mecca Meanwhile, TEPCO, Japan's largest electricity firm, wants to establish 200 recharging stations for electric cars in Tokyo by 2010, expanding the network to 1,000 or so in about three years: "Battery stations" to recharge electric vehicles were launched in car parks in Tokyo on Wednesday in a bid to promote the wider use of battery-operated vehicles in the future. Tokyo Elect...